THREE generations from one North Yorkshire family had an "unbelievable escape" when a lorry overturned and fell on their car at a busy roundabout.

Lyn Mallinson, of Malton, was driving a car at the A169 Eden Camp roundabout near Old Malton, on the way to Scarborough when the accident happened. With her were her six-month-old grandson, her own mother - the baby's great grandmother - and a friend.

In an incredible coincidence, Jack's mother, Nicola Smith, who is Lyn's daughter, passed the scene of the accident on a bus minutes after it happened.

"She saw the car through the window, recognised the number plate, and jumped up, shouting for the driver to stop," said Lyn.

Nicola arrived to comfort her baby, mother and grandmother beside the wrecked car and lorry before the emergency services arrived.

"We were just so lucky," said Lyn.

"The 32-tonne lorry was inches from flattening us - we've had an unbelievable escape."

The accident, just after 11am, left Lyn's R-registered grey Corsa badly damaged and wedged between the top of the overturned lorry's cab and the road's crash barrier.

The top end of the lorry's trailer was left hanging over the back of the car, which had to be cut out by firemen.

Lyn, 45, a catering supervisor at Flamingo Land, had pulled up at the roundabout as she drove from Malton for a day out. "I could see the wagon turning as it came round the roundabout and then it seemed to lose control," she said.

"I turned the car as hard as I could to get side-on and avoid it, but we were clipped by the front off-side wheels of the lorry.

"The cab's wheels were bouncing up and down off the road and then the load tipped over dragging the cab over too.

"I screamed at everyone in the car to get down.

"After everything stopped my first reaction was to check on Jack, who was in the baby seat in the back.

"He had slept through the whole thing and didn't have scratch on him. When he woke up he just kept giggling at all the flashing blue lights of the emergency services."

Lyn, her mother, Betty Simpson, 67, and friend, Jenny Abbot, from London, were all taken to Malton Hospital.

They were released that afternoon after treatment for minor injuries.

"You know when you watch things on TV and it's really slow motion, well this was like a movie where you couldn't jump back from the screen," said Lyn.

"I've never been very lucky or won a thing in my life, but we came out OK this time.

"My mother and I bought lottery tickets afterwards and I haven't yet checked the numbers."

Updated: 11:45 Friday, September 14, 2001